Shingle-machine



R. E. SCHWARZ.

SHINGLE MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5. 1921.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHED 1.

m m m N I R. E. SCHWARZ.

SHINGLE MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5. 1921; 1,396,468. Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

A TTORNEY.

R. E. SCHWARZ. SHINGLE MACHINE. APPLICATION man MAR-5.1921.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEE1 3.

IN V EN TOR.

R. E. SCHWARZ.

SHINGLE MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED mm. 5. 192

L 2 94 1... E 00m A W m NH H M 5 a5. Jaw

R. E. SCHWARZ. SHINGLE MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED mm. s. 1921.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

4 INVENTOR.

4 ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD E. SCHWARZ, OF ROYAL OAK TOWNSHIP, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

SHINGLE-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

Application filed March 5, 1921. Serial No. 449,832.

T all whom it may concem Be it known that I, RICHARD E. Scrrwanz, acitizen of the United States. and residing at Royal Oak township, in thecounty of Oakland and State of Michigan. have invented a new andImproved ShingleMachine, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to machines for continuously making shingles fromsemi-fluid mixtures of cement and other mineral substances, and itsobject is to provide an automatically operating machine which willproduce shingles which may be either of even thickness or have anydesired taper, as desired, which machine shall be Simple inconstruction, of great strength and of great capacity.

This invention consists in an intermittently operating conveyer formolds, a device for delivering a predetermined amount of material toeach mold as it is presented to this supply device, and of means forremoving the excess water from the material in the charged mold as themold is pre sented to this water-removing device.

It further consists in a conveyer in the form of a pair of chainsprovided with supporting wheels, a track for the wheels, and a supportfor the molds below the water-removing device, the tracks at this pointbeing provided with depressions to permit the molds to rest on thesupport.

It also consists in a water-removing device comprising a stationarypiston, a cylindrical pressure box slidable thereon and having aninternally extending flange along its lower edge of the same outline asthe mold, and means to supply compressed air to the space below thepiston to coact with said flange and hold the flange against the mold.

It also consists in a mold with rubber covered sides adapted to engagethe flange on the pressure box of the water-removing device so as toprovide an airtight joint.

It also consists in a spring to normally support the pressure box of thewater-removing device and in means operated at each cycle of the machineto force down the pressure box so that the flange at its lower edge mayengage the mold thereunder.

It also consists in the details of construction illustrated in theaccompanying drawis a side elevation of this improved shingle machine.Fig. '2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a verticalsection of a pressure box and its guiding mechanism. Fig. 4 is a sectionon the line 4-et of Fig. 3 on a smaller scale. Fig. 5 is a section onthe line 55 of Fig. 4 on a larger scale showing the mold in position.Fig. 6 is a detail section of a mold on the line 66 of Fig. 11. Fig. 7is a vertical section of a mold filler. Fig. 8 is a section on the line8-8 of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a detail showing the control mechanism. Fig. 10is a detail showing the valve operating mechanism of the 'mold filler.Fig. 11 is a plan of a mold. Fig. 12 is a detail of the mold carrier.Fig. 13 is a dia- 'rammatic detail of the driving mechanism. Fig. 1a isa section of an air valve. Fig. is a detail of a valve lever.

Similar reference characters refer to like parts throughout the severalviews.

In the present machine an endless double chain carries shallow moldshaving foraminous bottoms to a filling device and stops. A predeterminedamount of semi-fluid mixture containing cement and other materialsadapted to produce shingles is dropped into the mold. The chain thencarries the mold to the device for expressing the excess water, lowersthe mold onto a support and stops. A pressure box now comes down ontothe mold and seals the edges thereof and air pressure in the space abovethe mold causes all excess of water to be expressed from the plasticmass.

The pressure box is now lifted and the chain lifts the mold from itssupport and carries it to the point of discharge. Be-

wause of the many advantages, the present machine is built in duplicate,although one half may be omitted if desired.

The molds.

The shingle molds used in the present machine (Fig. 11) are rectangularwith sides 1, ends 2 and partitions 3, so that two shingles may be madein one mold. The sides and ends are preferably formed by covering a pipe4 (Fig. 5) with a layer of rubber 5 so as to provide a flat upper side6. A continuous outside frame member 7 supports an angle bar 8 at eachside, as indi- -atcd in Fig. 5. The partitions 8 are shown in Fig. 6 toconsist of central tubes 9 of metal with a coating 10 of rubber, thecentral tubes connecting at their ends to the i this shingle pipes. Thebottom of each mold is made up of a strong metal plate 11 havingcomparatively large perforations and a thin sheet 12 with very small andclosely spaced perforations or a finely woven wire screen resting on theplate 11. The plate 11 is there to support the screen 12. If desired,the parts 7 and 11 may be made integral.

T he (Zr icing mechanism.

1 In Fig. 1 the chain wheels are shown to have six teeth and the moldsare carried by alternate links of the conveyor chain. It is thereforenecessary to advance the chains a distance equal to the length of twolinks for each cycle of the machine. The driving mechanism for the shaft14 of the head wheels 15 may be mounted directly upon or be spacedsomewhat from the frame of the machine and may consist of a shaft 14adapted to be connected to the shaft 14 or be a part thereof, a pinion16 on this shaft 14, a gear 17 meshing therewith and mounted on theshaft 18,- a Genevamovement star wheel 19 on this shaft 18, a disk 20 onthe main driving shaft 22, said disk carrying the usual pin 23 and amutilated plate 24 employed in Geneva-movements. The shaft 22 makes onerevolution for each cycle of the machine and may be driven in anydesired manner, a belt 25 being in dicated. A sprocket chain 26 on thesprocket wheel 27 on this main shaft 22 connects to. the sprocket wheel28 on the control shaft 29 shown in Fig. 1 and these wheels are of equalsize so that the shaft 29makes.

one revolution for each cycle of the machine. The pinion 16 and gear 17are as 3 to 5, so that the shaft 14 will make onethird revolution foreach cycle of the ma chine. It will be understood that any other desiredmechanism may be employed to drive mechanism and to control itsoperations.

The frame and carrier chain.

As the present machine is substantially automatic in its operation, itmay be constructed in duplicate to great advantage. The frame is shownto consist of the horizontal bars 32, 33 and 34, the upright bars 35,36, 37, 38 and 89, and cross bars 40 and 4.1, but this is merely aconvenient construction' and may be varied by any skilled designer. Inorder to form tapering; shingles when these are desired, the plasticmass must be thicker at one end of the mold than at the other. This isprovided for by the arc-shaped shoes 42 under one end of the frame andthe screws 43 under the opposite end of the frame. I prefer to havethese shoes 42 central with the shaft 14 so that the driving shaft ofthe machine will always remain in alinement with the head of theconveyor. The shoes may rest on rollers 44 supported in any desiredmanner.

The shaft 45 of the rear chain wheels 46 may be mounted in any wellknown type of adjustable bearing 47. The chains are each formed of flatside links 48 and 48 in pairs connected by short pins which alternatewith transverse rods which extend across etween the two chains. Flangedcarrier wheels are mounted on the pins 49 and rods 50 and these wheelsride on the tracks and 54. I

To each alternate inner link 48 of each chain is attached an angle barof such a length that it extends forward sufiiciently to overlapsubstantially one half of the length the adjacent link 48, see F 12. Themolds are mounted on these angle bars in the manner shown in Fig. 2. Theupper tracks are formed with pairs of depressions at 56 and 57, asindicated in Fig. 1,

T he mold filler.

The shingle material is in the form of a more or less liquid mass storedin a tank 60 above the carrier and extending down therefrom is ameasuring device shown in cross section in Fig. 7. It is built up of aseries of cylindrical members, among them being the telescoping parts 61and 62 which permit of the tank 60 and the tube 61 being raised orlowered to vary the capacity of the measuring device. Two valve seats-63 and 64 are mounted within the measuring device and valves 65 and 66are mounted on the stem 67 and are adapted to alternately engage theseseats. A link 68 at the lower end of the stem 67 connects to a pin 91 atthe end of a second link 69 pivoted at 7.0.

The pin 91 extends through a slot 71 in a lever 69 as indicated in Fig.15. Because of this slot, the spring 88 may hold the link 68 and stem6?at their high or low positions, irrespective of any looseness of theconnections between the. pivot of. the. lever 69 and the end of thelever 86 that engages the cam 81. It will be noticed that this spring 88swings across the pivot 70 to hold this pin 91 at the end of its up. ordown movements.

Fig. 1 shows a pair of channel beams '73 resting on the bars 33 and Fig.2 shows posts 74 extending upward from these channel beams andsupporting other channel beams 75. The posts carry sleeves 76 which areadjustable by means of nuts 77. rackets 78 on these upper channelssupport the bearings 79 for the control shaft 29 above referred to, andon this shaft are mounted three cams 81, 82 and 83, which are shown in Fig. 9 in the positions they occupy at about the middle of the rest perod of the conveyor. 1

On a bracket 7 8 is a pedestal 84 which car ries a pivot 85 for thelever 86, the forward end of which engages the cam 81, and the rear endconnects to the link 87 which extends to the lever 69.

When the valve 66 is raised, the material in the tubes 6162 will flowdown through the holes 92 and divide, one-half passing down each leg 93into a mold carried by The water rem-owing device.

When the mold has been filled it is carried along a short distance andlaid upon a support 97, substantially rectangular in plan, and having anoutside wall 98 and cross bars 99. The bottom plate 11 of the mold restsdirectly on these walls and cross bars and these supports are carried bythe channel bars 73. Mounted in the channel bars and positioned by thepins 100 are the internally threaded blocks 102 into which the pistonrods 103 are screwed. On these piston rods are the stop nuts 104 and thepistons 105.

Slidable on the piston rods are the pressure boxes 106 whose conicaltops 107 are formed with hubs 108, to which the channel beams 109 areattached by means of the pins 111 and sleeves 111 of a universalcoupling. A pin connects the middle points of these channel beams to thehead 112 of the piston rod 113. A cylinder 115 is shown in Fig. 2 tohave a piston 114, shown in dotted lines, attached to the lower end ofthe piston rod 113. Vithin the pressure boxes and on the piston rods 103and resting on the pistons 105 are springs 116 which normally hold upthe mold covers.

The cam 82 on the shaft 29 actuates a lever 117 mounted on a pin 118carried by a block 119 on the bracket 78. As soon as the conveyer chainshave brought a pair of filled molds to the supports 97 and lowered themolds down onto the supports by the wheels 52 descending into thedepressions 56 and 57 in the rails 54, the cam 82 swings the lever 117against the pull of the spring 120 and opens the valve between the airmain 122 and the pipe 123 leading to the cylinder 115, admit-tingcompressed air to this cylinder above the piston 114: and forcing downthe piston and the two pressure boxes 106. The lower ends of thepressure boxes are formed with inwardly extending flanges 12st (Fig. 5),which fit against the surfaces 6 of the rubber rims of the molds.

A valve adapted to control the cylinder 115 is shown in Fig. 11 andcomprises a body 125 in which a disk valve 126 is held against its seatby the spring 127 and pressure from the pipe 128 leading to the main122. A stem 129 on this disk valve may be depressed by the member 130connected to the arm 131 which in turn is operatively connected to thelever 117 by a link 132. When the arm 131 is swung to the position shownin Fig. 1 1, the air in the pipe 123 may escape through the opening 133.

As soon as the pressure boxes have been brought down onto the molds asjust described, the cam 83 swings the lever 134. against the pull of thespring 135 to swing the valve lever 136 of the valve 137, which leversare connected by the link 138. Air from the main 122 passes down thepipe 139 to the T 140 and through the pipes 141 to the pistons 105, seeFig. 5. The pistons are formed with irregular annular passages 142 andH3 and the annular outlet is so large that there is no blast of airdirected against the material in the mold to disturb it.

Each piston may be formed with a packing ring 145, and its diameter isso much greater than the flange 12% of the pressure box that thepressure of the air below the piston will hold the pressure box down onthe mold. The pressure of the air below the piston forces all excesswater down through the screen 12 into the support 97 from which it mayescape through the opening 1 14.

ery little time is necessary to drive off the excess water and thepressure boxes are permitted to rise under the push of the springs 116.The conveyer then carries the mold forward and discharges it onto theincline 117 as indicated in Fig. 1, from which it is removed to theseasoning floor.

\Vhile I have shown a mold for rectangular shingles and more rectangularmolds will probably be used than any other type, it will be understoodthat the mold may be given any desired interior form so as to produceshingles of any design.

I prefer the present construction with its use of air pressure above themold to the use of a suction pump attached to the mold support at thedischarge openings 14 1 thereof, for while the joint between the moldsand the support can easily be made air tight, the absolute pressureabove the mold can only equal fifteen pounds per square inch whensuction is employed, whereas by the present system any desired pressuremay be had,

about eighty pounds being found the most desirable.

The details of construction and the proportions of the parts may all bechanged by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit ofmy invention as set forth in the following claims.

I claim 1. In a shingle machine, the combination of a conveyor chainadapted to carry shingle molds, said chain embodying carrier wheels, atrack for said wheels, a support to holdthe molds while the excess wateris forced therefrom, and rails on which the carrier wheels may travel,said rails having depressions so that the chains may lower the moldsonto the support. I

2. In a shingle machine, the comblnation with rectangular molds havingthe upper edges of their rims ilat, a conveyer for the under pressureabove the material in the mold.

3. In a shingle machine, the combination of aseries of molds, a conveyerfor said molds embodying a pair of chains, chain wheels on which. thechains are mounted, means to intermittently actuate the chain, means todischarge a predetermined amount of shingle material at each rest of thecone veyer, and means to produce a pressure of air above a mold at eachrest of the conveyer.

4. In a shingle machine, the combination of a frame, a series of molds,a conveyer adapted to receive said molds, a track for the conveyermounted on the frame, and means to inclinejthe frame to cause thematerial in the molds to be deeper at one end than at the other. 7 v

5. In a shingle machine, a mold comprising an exterior frame of metaland a rubber covering therefor having a flat top, a bottom for the moldcomprising a relatively heavy bottom plate provided with perforationsand a finer screen thereon, a mold cover having a flat bottom adapted toengage therubber covering of the mold frame, and means to convey airunder pressure to the space above the mold.

6. In a shingle machine, a rectangular mold con'iprising anexteriorframe of metal and a rubber covering therefor having-a flat top,a screen for the bottom of the mold adapted to permit the passage ofwater, a support for the mold, a piston rigidly mounted above thesupport, a mold cover embodying a cyllndrical portion slidable on thepiston and a rectangular lower end adapted to fit the mold, thecylindrical portion having greater area than the clear. space,

within the rectangular end, and means to move the cover up and down.

7. In a shingle machine, a rectangular mold comprising an exterior frameof metal and a rubber covering thereforhaving a flat top, a screen forthe bottom of the mold adapted to permit the passage of water, a supportfor the mold, a piston rigidly mounted above the support, a mold coverembodying a cylindrical portion slidable on the piston and a rectangularlower, end

adapted to fit the mold, the cylindrical portion having greater areathan the clear space within the rectangular end, a spring to lift pinglemachine, a rectangular mold comprising an exterior frame of metal and arubber covering therefor having a flat top, a screen for the bottom ofthe mold adapted to permit the passage of water, a support for the mold,a piston rigidly mounted above the support, a mold cover embodyingacylindrical portion slidable on the piston and a rectangular lower endadapted to fit the mold, the cylindrical portion having greater areathan the clear space Within the rectangular end, means to move the coverupand down, and an intermittently movable conveyer for carrying themolds to said support and then removing them. 1

9. In .a shingle machine, a rectangular mold comprising an exteriorframe of metal and a rubber covering therefor having a flat top, ascreen for the bottom of the mold adapted to permit the passage ofwater, a support for the mold, a piston rigidly mounted above thesupport, a mold cover embodying a cylindrical portion slidable on thepiston and a rectangular lower end adapted to lit the mold, thecylindrical por-.

tion having greater area than the clear space within the rectangularend, means to move the cover up and down, a frame on which the supportis mounted, and means to incline the frame, support and mold.

10. In ashingle machine, a pressure box,

a mold support below. the pressure box, a

mold conveyor comprising a pair of chains, one on each side of thepressure box and adapted toplace molds on the pressure box. and means tolower the pressure boxonto the molds.

11. In a, shingle machine, a pressure box, aimold support below thepressure box. a mold conveyer comprising a pair of chains and a carrierwheel at each link of said chains, tracks for the wheels formed withdepressions adjacent the mold support to lower thechains and the moldsthereon so that the molds may rest on the support, and

means to lower the pressure box onto the molds.

12. In a shingle machine, a pressure box, a mold support below thepressure box, a mold conveyer comprising a pair of chains and a carrierwheel at each link of said chains, tracks for the wheels formed withdepressions adjacent the mold support to lower the-chains and the moldsthereon so that the molds may rest on, the support, means to lower thepressure box onto the molds. I

13. In a shingle mach1ne,,a head shaft,

two pairs of chain wheels mounted thereon, conveyer chains in pairs onsaid wheels, mold supports attached to the inner sides of said chains, atubular measuring device for semiliquid shingle material, tubular legsattached thereto to discharge the contents thereof into molds betweenthe pairs of chains, and means for intermittently operating themeasuring device and the chains.

14:. In a shingle machine, a head shaft, two pairs of chain wheelsmounted thereon, conveyer chains in pairs on said wheels, mold supportsattached to the inner sides of said chains, a tubular measuring devicefor semiliquid shingle material, tubular legs attached thereto todischarge the contents thereof into molds between the pairs of chains,means for intermittently operating the measuring device and the chains,and means above each conveyer to cause the removal of the excess waterin the shingle material in the molds carried by the conveyer.

RICHARD E. SCHWARZ.

